Written by P.F. Sloan at age 19, this song was was released in 1965, when the United States had been through nuclear war scares including the Cuban Missile Crisis and had suffered the shocking assassination of President john F. Kennedy and was seeing a continued escalation of the War in Vietnam.

Barry McGuire was part of the folk-rock scene in Southern California in the ‘60s. In the summer of 1965, “Eve of Destruction“ topped the charts in the United States and Norway, reached #3 in The Netherlands and UK, and was a top 20 hit in Germany and Belgium. It is his only U..S top 40 hit, earning him the label of one-hit wonder.

The song has been recorded by many artists, but McGuire’s version—the first to be released—remains the most popular.